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4chan and Pirate Bay help bring down a law firm... and a lot of porn watchers

A few years back, I let a friend's boyfriend borrow my laptop. When I got it back, my cookies and recent browser history had been cleared. I was immediately suspicious. Google's search suggestions had not been cleared and the history of the last few queries confirmed that my computer had gotten a bit dirty while out of my hands. I never spilled the identity of the culprit, because there's some shame around porno-watching. But over 5,000 UK citizens who allegedly downloaded porn movies illegally are not so lucky. They have had their names and addresses leaked online, thanks to hackers who cracked the email database of an anti-piracy law firm, ACS:Law.

ACS:Law has used controversial tactics to go after those suspected of illegal file-sharing, including sending out thousands of letters threatening legal action if file-sharers refuse to pay up. This has angered many free-loving Netizens, including those in the now-notorious 4chan.org community (known for bringing puppy-killers to justice). The 4chan folks launched a Distributed Denial of Service attack on several music and film industry websites earlier this week as part of its "Operation: Payback Is A Bitch" campaign. ACS:Law was one of the sites crashed by 4chan.

"Big whoop," said ACS:Law managing partner Andrew Crossley to The Register. "It was only down for a few hours. I have far more concern over the fact of my train turning up 10 minutes late or having to queue for a coffee than them wasting my time with this sort of rubbish."

It was a really big whoop, though. When the site came back up, it granted access to the firm's root directory, allowing the Net warriors to download over 1,000 of the firm's internal emails, reports BBC News (Hat tip: Twittering UK tech lawyer Jonathan Armstrong). The emails were uploaded to Pirate Bay and are still being sorted. File-sharing blog TorrentFreak has been reporting on the juiciest finds, which include a spreadsheet of Sky Broadband subscribers along with a list of the adult videos they allegedly downloaded and shared online, which ACS:Law was using for its targeting. Apparently, Rupert Murdoch-owned Sky turned the information over to the law firm, though the company tells Reuters that it only would have done so in encrypted form. (Which is probably still not very reassuring to those illegal file sharers who use Sky services.)

The email breach is going to be a problem for the ACS:Law's clients who hoped to rely on attorney-client privilege to protect their communications. It's going to be an embarrassment for the UK folks on the list of adult movie watchers, like this married man who denies downloading the gay porno "Bareback Britain." And it's going to be of far more concern for Crossley than a late train or a long wait for a latte -- his firm may face a £500,000 fine for the data breach.